that year george w. bush won independents 47-45. and independents made up a little more than a quarter of the electorate that year. in 2004, john kerry essentially split them with president bush, 49-48 with the independent share still only one out of every four voters. by 2008, independents accounted for nearly a third, 29%, and they broke significantly for president obama. he beat john mccain among them 52-44%. but the latest nbc news/"wall street journal" poll finds romney leading nationally by six points. why is that important in virginia? according to the new "washington post" poll, 36% of virginia voters now say they are independent, more than democrats, more than republicans. that's the largest voting bloc. let's look at the 2008 map to see where the president did well and where he needs to overperform this time. if you look here, i'm going to circle our little blue counties here. i'm going to show you where the places here, and i switch over to the 2004, you'll see all this blue disappear in the areas that i just circled. and